Harper touts home ownership at Vaughan stop

Yorkregion.com
Sept. 30, 2015
By Adam Martin-Robbins

The Conservatives will aim to increase the number of new homeowners across the country by more than 700,000 in the next five years.

Tory leader Stephen Harper made the announcement Tuesday alongside Vaughan-Woodbridge Conservative candidate Julian Fantino during a campaign stop at a subdivision, where homes cost $600,000 to more than $900,000, being built at Major Mackenzie Drive and Huntington Road, west of Hwy. 27.

“We Conservatives believe in the pride and stability of homeownership and of expanding it and of doing even better,” Harper said, noting new homeownership and the construction jobs it creates are good for the economy.

Tories say their housing target can be achieved through a mix of previous tax breaks and new promises.

The measures include expanding the homebuyer’s plan to allow those purchasing a their first home to withdraw $35,000 in savings tax-free, up from $25,000; establishing a permanent home renovation tax credit for expenses between $1,000 and $5,000 as well as working with the provinces to “address foreign, non-resident real estate speculation.”

Hitting the housing target would boost Canada’s homeownership rate to 72.5 per cent, up from about 70 per cent, according to numbers provided by the Conservative party.

The Conservatives say their goal is achievable, pointing out that it’s in line with projections laid out by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation and the Canadian Homebuilder’s Association.

Both organizations have pegged average household ownership growth at more than 140,000 per year until 2021, according to numbers provided by the party.

Vaughan-Woodbridge Liberal candidate Francesco Sorbara said the Conservatives are just now reacting to a housing crisis that’s been growing for years.

“After a decade of ignoring this issue while housing prices skyrocket and home ownership becomes increasingly unattainable, it’s ironic that Harper and Fantino decided to make an announcement about encouraging first-time home ownership in the midst of $900,000 homes,” he wrote in an email. “Harper’s Conservatives have been watching the housing crisis build over the past 10 years, ignoring all the signs and refusing to address it until now.”

Sorbara said the Liberals are pledging to “make direct investments in affordable housing, put incentives in place to expand affordable rental housing and increase flexibility for new home buyers” to provide housing options for senior citizens, people with disabilities, lower-income families and “Canadians working hard to join the middle class.”

Before Harper’s announcement, Fantino addressed the crowd of construction workers, media and a few dozen local supporters gathered for the tightly controlled event.

“We live in dangerous and uncertain times, in a world that is troubled, where threats to our economy, our prosperity, indeed our jobs and more, are really the new reality,” he said. “My number one priority, as is that of our government, is the economy.”

And, as he’s done throughout this campaign, Fantino took a couple of shots at Liberal leader Justin Trudeau.

Election watchers suggest that tactic and Harper’s visit, stem from the fact Fantino, who was first elected in a hotly contested 2010 byelection, is once again locked in a tight race.

Popular online prediction websites, and recent polls, suggest the local race is too close to call, at this point.

Asked Tuesday if he’s worried, Fantino shrugged it off.

“I’m not concerned at all,” he said. “I think that in the end you just have to stay focused on the end game. We’re working as hard as we can, flat out on all issues, and we’ll take the outcome.”
Also running in Vaughan-Woodbridge are NDP candidate Adriana Zichy, Green Party candidate Elise Boulanger and Libertarian candidate Anthony Gualtieri.

Voters go to the polls Oct. 19.